Twitter bites Steve Rubel in the bum

10 Responses to “Twitter bites Steve Rubel in the bum”

John Allsopp on April 17th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

Chezza,

so, instead of asking why such a person finds the magazine literally worthless, the editor goes into change reality mode, and learns nothing plus looks like a bit of a dill.
Web 0.2?

:-)

j

John Fitzsimmons on April 17th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

While I don’t agree with your “intense dislike of Twitter” I do try to follow your same creed, “I don’t post anything that I could potentially lose a job or work over if someone were to google me.”

We all have a public persona. But those of us who choose to have a voice online potentially have much more of one. I think it falls under the category of “great power comes with great responsibility. And while a blog or a tweet doesn’t seem powerful Rubel’s got to the ears of PC Mag’s Senior VP.

‘Tweet responsibly’ should be our mantra.

Cheryl on April 17th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

John A - I actually side with the editor on this one.

If I sent someone a free magazine every month and then found out they publicly stated they threw it in the bin, I’d be upset too. Ok maybe I wouldn’t boycott them and their company, but I’d at least cancel their subscription :)

I think the editor did fly off the handle and over-react but it’s an interesting lesson on what can be taken out of context in a public arena.

John F, you’re absolutely right. I guess that’s the interesting thing about this situation, Rubel’s tweet really did seem harmless, but it’s left him in the situation of being caught slagging someone off behind their back. On the plus side, it’s a good warning/reminder on permanence for the rest of us.

jj on April 22nd, 2007 at 7:23 pm

Hi Chezza,

Isn’t liking or disliking twitter not the point? If something like this starts to become popular on the web, you have to take it seriously as social media don’t you?

Not all tweets are banal conversations. Your point about Rubel’s twitter just shows how powerful something like this could become, in many different areas.

It’s also interesting that some news organisations are starting to twitter already:

twitter.com/bbcworldservice
twitter.com/cnnbrk
http://twitter.com/nytimes
http://twitter.com/technorati
http://twitter.com/CNETNews

Cheryl on April 22nd, 2007 at 8:21 pm

JJ,

Yes you’re right there - I do have a tendency to think a service is valueless if I personally don’t find the value in it :)

I had first hand observation of this when I saw a friend use MySpace a few years ago. I’d already written it off as a crap service that noone would use, but watching a non-geek use it was really eye-opening, it totally changed her social interaction with her friends.

I do disagree with your comment that “Not all tweets are banal conversations” though. What can you say in 140 characters that isn’t either banal or contrived to make you sound more interesting?

jj on April 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm

Yep, I’m with you about MySpace. I have a feeling that twitter (or other similar services like Jaiku or Tumblr) could turn out to be similar in scale, with users in the millions - guess we’ll have to wait and see.

“What can you say in 140 characters that isn’t either banal or contrived to make you sound more interesting?”

Hmmm, there’s a challenge for a copywriter. I’m sure it can be done.

Molt:n Core » Making a statement on April 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 pm

[...] really don’t like Twitter but the comment by JJ made me stop and think - it is a valuable social tool and it’s changing the way we interact [...]

Cheryl on April 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 pm

JJ - “Hmmm, there’s a challenge for a copywriter. I’m sure it can be done.”

Prove it :)

leisa reichelt on April 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 am

it truly astounds me the Rubel could be so dumb as to let this happen. I mean… he’s supposed to be an expert in this field! If you Twitter publicly, then everything is Google-able. Combine that with Google Alerts and it’s just an accident waiting to happen.

If I was a client of Steve’s I’d be really questioning whether I was paying the right person. The only possible excuse is that he *meant* to direct message someone via Twitter and forgot. We’re all guilty of that mistake. Eh, that is, those of us who don’t passionately hate Twitter ;)

and re: the 140 character restriction, a great copywriter once said something along the lines of brevity being the soul of wit…. (yeah, there is some banality, but there are also some pearls).

Cheryl on April 23rd, 2007 at 5:40 pm

Leisa, yeah it was pretty stupid of Rubel to twitter it, but I guess we’ve all been in that situation, whether online or offline. It’s one of those learning lessons, like sending an unprofessional email to the wrong person, or bitching about someone within earshot of them - once you’ve done it once, you’re always so careful about it not happening again.

If I was a client of Steve’s, I think I’d be happy that he’d heard of twitter - I’ve previously worked with online agencies stuck in the 80s, who make comments like “Viral is big right now - look at a site called Subservient Chicken”. :)